Recent improvements in home electronic technologies have resulted in electronic devices having significantly enhanced capabilities. Such improved electronic devices can include processing and storage capabilities. These new capabilities make possible the interconnection of many devices to form networks. One advantage of such networked devices is that they can share information and resources. As a result, applications on the networked devices can control and coordinate several devices simultaneously. Such improved electronic devices are becoming especially prevalent in the consumer electronics (CE) arena. Typical CE devices can include, but are not limited to, home audio/video (AV) devices (e.g., televisions, audio equipment, VCR's, CD (compact disk) players, DVD (digital video disk) players) or more sophisticated devices like set-top boxes (STB's, e.g., intelligent receiver/decoder IRD), and personal computers (PC's). These devices are coupled together using a network backbone such as a standard bus (e.g., a standard IEEE 1394 serial communications bus, i.e., iLink® or Firewire® buses). However, alternative buses systems can be used to form the network backbone (e.g., Ethernet (TCP/IP), Bluetooth, 802.11 as well as others).
The networked devices communicate using a number of different communication protocols. Typical protocols are defined by standards such as HAVi (Home Audio/Visual Initiative), AV/C (the AV/C Digital Interface Command Set, created by the A/V Working Group of the 1394 Trade Association, defines a protocol for monitoring and controlling CE devices), IEA 851 (EIA Standard, VHN Home Network Specification, IEA/CEA-851), OSGI (Open Service Gateway Initiative), Control A1, XML (Extended Markup Language), or UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). Such protocols will collectively be referred to as communications protocols or just protocols.
Such communications protocols are used to provide device-centric standards which solve many problems relating to device control and interoperability. Thus, as long as the devices comply with the standards, they can communicate with other networked devices which comply with the same standard. Although satisfactory for these limited, but necessary purposes, they fall short as effective content management tools on existing infrastructures.
Some of the deficiencies in existing architectures include the inability to effectively control content across networks of heterogeneous devices. For example, networks which include devices having incompatible protocols (e.g., an OSGI DVD player and a HAVi television set) can not effectively communicate or control content across the network. This is especially difficult where an application is constructed in one protocol but seeks to function on a device having another incompatible protocol.
Moreover, because devices operate in different content domains (e.g., broadcast, Internet, local audio/video (such as DVD, CD, or other formats)) format and protocol incompatibilities can exist within a network making navigation in these different domains. In addition to navigation problems, existing architectures can not effectively manage AV (audio/video) content libraries across networks of heterogeneous devices.
Among the other limitations of existing architectures is that multiple sets of controls (e.g.; remote controls) are required to control all of the networked devices, with each set of controls being dedicated to a single device. What is needed is an architecture that allows control of content on a network without having to rely on individually controlling each device on a network. In conventional infrastructures some content management services and applications can be accommodated through extensive reprogramming and translation of existing device-centric services which were never intended to accomplish such tasks. However, as a consequence such services and applications are not “portable” between protocols. Moreover, these infrastructures do not have the ability to communicate between applications as they contend for the same network assets (e.g., devices, content, services, and other resources). As a result, conflicts in the allocation of content and devices limit the usefulness of any such infrastructures.
What is needed is a network architecture that overcomes these and other difficulties. The present invention introduces method and apparatus that solves these and other issues.